Keystone opponents tee off on White House while President tees off with Tiger

posted at 11:31 am on February 18, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

As protests go, the anti-Keystone XL Pipeline march doesn’t seem terribly effective. First, organizers scheduled it during a vacation weekend for Barack Obama, when the President hit the links with Tiger Woods and left the White House press corps steaming over a lack of photo ops. Its turnout failed to get even 10% of the turnout for the March for Life a month ago, coming in at just 35,000.

However, at least they got more press coverage than abortion opponents got, including nineteen seconds on CBS Evening News:

A crowd that organizers said numbered approximately 35,000 braved the cold on Sunday and marched to urge President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and to show leadership on other climate issues they called urgent.

The group rallied on a slice of the Mall just north of the Washington Monument before heading down Constitution Avenue, up 17th Street and past the White House chanting slogans such as “We are unstoppable, another world is possible” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Keystone pipeline’s got to go.”

Hey hey ho ho! I’m actually a fan of peaceful protests, no matter the cause, as that freedom reminds us all that political change comes through peaceful action in this republic. Still, it would be nice if protesters could expand their repertoires to include something more than the mindless, fill-in-the-blank chants from two generations ago. In this case, it doesn’t even apply, since Keystone isn’t here yet, and so can’t “go.”

What alternatives do these protesters want for the US to meet its energy needs? They must want domestic oil production enhanced instead of all that dirty Canadian oil, or perhaps more emphasis on natural gas, right? Not exactly:

But the demonstrators tried to send him a message nonetheless, carrying signs opposing not only the proposed pipeline from Canada to Texas, but also opposing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and coal plants. “Windmills, not oil spills,” one placard said. Another said, “Fossil fuels? Fossil fools.” And another: “Read my lips: no new carbons.”

No oil, no coal, and no natural gas. In other words, America needs to go on an energy diet and eliminate 58% of our energy (2011 statistics). Assuming the same crowd would reject nuclear power, we get to two-thirds of all power generated in the US. Either we turn off all the lights and crash our economy, or only the very wealthiest individuals will be able to wash their clothes by anything but hand, and everyone else will have to heat their food by wood-burning stove. I wonder how many of them communicated by computer to organize the protest. Skip that in the future, too.

Hey hey, ho ho. Rationality’s got to go, I guess. Speaking of rationality, Reason TV offers this rebuttal to the protesters and their rhyming irrationality with three good reasons to approve the Keystone XL pipeline:

1. The oil isn’t going to stay buried.

American environmentalists oppose the pipeline partly because they oppose the burning of fossil fuels — especially those extracted from relatively dirty “oil sands.” But if America doesn’t build the pipeline, that oil is still going to be processed and enter the environment. It’ll just get bought by China and other countries looking for cheap and plentiful energy. And TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, is already working on contingency plans to do just that.

2. The pipeline isn’t a disaster waiting to happen.

Opponents say that the proposed route dangerously strays over part of the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska, which supplies water for 20 million people. The governor of nebraska has urged president obama to start building. TransCanada, has already agreed to redirect the pipeline to minimize hazards. It’s also agreed to encase the pipeline in cement and post a $100 million bond to cover any possible cleanups.

3. It will help the economy.

Estimates for jobs related to the pipepline run everywhere from 6,000 to a quarter of a million, with TransCanada saying it will hire 15,000 workers to build the thing. The exact figures are unknowable, but once it’s up and running, Keystone XL will adds billions of dollars in ongoing economic activity and tax revenues.

President Obama has the authority to stop the pipeline if he determines that it’s not “in the national interest.” Given the potential upsides of the project, the relative ease with which environmental concerns can be addressed, and the president’s own commitment to what he calls “an all of the above energy strategy,” it’s hard to conjure up a strong case against building the Keystone XL pipeline.

This project is a no-brainer … which is why we’re worried that Washington will listen to the chanters instead of reason.

Blowback

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OH for Godsakes over it already. If you honestly believe that the underwhelmed American voters are more to blame than the GOP and the candidate himself for their electoral loss then you don’t really believe in personal responsibility and shouldn’t call yourself a conservative.

I have an acquaintance who voted for Obama and thinks the world can run on green energy. Common sense is not his strong point. Or logic. Or knowledge of history or current events. He is convinced we do not need all that oil. Some people are unreachable.

I have an acquaintance who voted for Obama and thinks the world can run on green energy. Common sense is not his strong point. Or logic. Or knowledge of history or current events. He is convinced we do not need all that oil. Some people are unreachable.

birdwatcher on February 18, 2013 at 11:48 AM

If you are willing to accept the death of a few billion people we could run the world on green energy.

There is something mind-boggling in a Global Warming protest at -12 degrees Centigrade, which is almost a record for the place and time of the protest. Liberalism is truly a mental disorder, completely impervious to common sense and sanity.

I have an acquaintance who voted for Obama and thinks the world can run on green energy. Common sense is not his strong point. Or logic. Or knowledge of history or current events. He is convinced we do not need all that oil. Some people are unreachable.

birdwatcher on February 18, 2013 at 11:48 AM

The Progressive ideology is all about emotions. People who reject logic, common sense, and basic economics do so because they are emotionally challenged. Progressivism fills that void in their souls. It makes no difference if their policies actually work or not.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska utility said the new route for a proposed oil pipeline that would carry Canadian crude oil through the state will delay work on electric transmission lines for the pipeline.

Nebraska Public Power District officials said they won’t be able to build the transmission lines by the end-of-2014 deadline that TransCanada set.

NPPD Chief Operating Officer Tom Kent said there’s no way the transmission lines will be ready by 2015.
“We have a lot of work to do,” he said.

This is the true goal of the enviro-nuts. Any delay in progress is a win for them.

I believe that President Obama will eventually approve Keystone. Now that hes got their votes in the bag, its over. He wants to build a legacy. He doesn’t care bout the dems at all. Not approving Keystone would tarnish that goal. And thats my 2 cents. :-)

Diesel in Ga. up from $3.75 three short weeks ago to the current $4.20. This is what failed leadership looks like. 0 has no plan except to send it higher. He is anti American. May all who have love for him feel the pain of his delight.

I believe that President Obama will eventually approve Keystone. Now that hes got their votes in the bag, its over. He wants to build a legacy. He doesn’t care bout the dems at all. Not approving Keystone would tarnish that goal. And thats my 2 cents. :-)

tommy71 on February 18, 2013 at 12:01 PM

We’ll see. I predict he will “approve” XL but stack the deck with insurmountable demands upon the participating states and businesses. For example, each state that has the pipeline running through it has to set up a punitive “carbon-trading” tax scheme, etc. While the demands are negotiated years will pass by and the pipeline will be perpetually delayed.

I have an acquaintance who voted for Obama and thinks the world can run on green energy. Common sense is not his strong point. Or logic. Or knowledge of history or current events. He is convinced we do not need all that oil. Some people are unreachable.

birdwatcher on February 18, 2013 at 11:48 AM

Blissfully ignorant of reality – like most libs. Things just work, because they’ve always worked, and they’ll continue to work, see? Your friend’s job, car, computer, lights/heat at home, cellphone, clothing, cheap and plentiful food at easy to reach supermarkets, all will continue to simply ‘work’, even if we remove all fossil fuels, and the earth will be happy and exude wonderul happyvibes, and…

Keystone opponents tee off on White House while President tees off with Tiger

The pipeline will be approved if and when the Dems can extort enough money from those who want to build it. This is a huge project and many palms (in both parties and bureaucrats who couldn’t care less about politics beyond their personal gain) will have to be greased all along the route.

Though I despise the Dems, I don’t think the Keystone Pipeline will do this country much good anyway.

A crowd that organizers said numbered approximately 35,000 braved the cold on Sunday and marched to urge President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and to show leadership on other climate issues they called urgent.

Too bad their President and Mooch just jetted off to opposite ends of the continent, on their respective 5 star vacations.

Assuming the same crowd would reject nuclear power, we get to two-thirds of all power generated in the US. Either we turn off all the lights and crash our economy, or only the very wealthiest individuals will be able to wash their clothes by anything but hand, and everyone else will have to heat their food by wood-burning stove. I wonder how many of them communicated by computer to organize the protest. Skip that in the future, too.

Ed, you’re giving them way too much credit … they also want to tear down all the hydro-electric dams in the western coastal areas of the United States (Hoover Dam’s apparently OK for now, since Rachel Maddow did a Lean Forward commercial with it).

Add in the water-power electricity they want taken out of the system, and you get to at least three-quarters of all current power generation the enviros want eliminated.

Protesters need to understand that the oil is going to get burned somewhere, and the end-result regarding pollution will be about the same. The only difference is, do we burn it and profit, or do we let China buy it from Canada, and let them burn it and profit?

They chant: “We are unstoppable, another world is possible.” What kind of world? Here’s my Real Science comment:

Obama’s Science Czar’s John Holdren’s past call (before the AGW scare) to “de-develop the United States” & create a “stable low consumption economy” is the political expression of the leftist dream, and they will push and push for that. Driving it all is secular guilt, and the dream of their own Eden. But the raw feeling of their pastoral fantasy is not dressed in words such “a stable low consumption economy,” but THIS:
“We have wished, we ecofreaks, for a disaster or for a social change to come and bomb us into Stone Age, where we might live like Indians in our valley, with our localism, our appropriate technology, our gardens, our homemade religion.” –Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalogue
They see draconian CO2 cuts [like the 83% cuts by 2050 mandated in the cap & trade bill that passed the U.S. House in 2009] as the ticket to fold up industrial civilization, if all goes “well.” But unfortunately, for them, and everybody else, it wouldn’t lead to this Utopian Eden. An Albanian told the story of what happened to their country with the collapse of communism (and just some supply systems): “Even the trees lining the roads were chopped down.”
It would be no Garden of Eden. I could say that instead it would be like a Mad Max world — but it’d be much worse. No desert idealism of clean and clean-cut ruffians. Tons of people (at first), and just cutting discomfort, cold, disease, dirtiness, dysentery, hunger, and violence.
You’d think at some point, let’s say after severe CO2 caps are implemented, and other problems ensued, people would see it coming, and repeal… But there would possibly be too much inertia, and once a series of collapses begin, it may be impossible to halt the descent.

OH for Godsakes over it already. If you honestly believe that the underwhelmed American voters are more to blame than the GOP and the candidate himself for their electoral loss then you don’t really believe in personal responsibility and shouldn’t call yourself a conservative.

Hey hey!!! Ho ho!!! Blaming the grassroots has got to go!!!

abobo on February 18, 2013 at 11:47 AM

Listen up. I do blame the GOP, but we have a two party system, and until you so-called arbiters of all that is conservative form a third party it is what it is. The GOP maneuvered Romney into place. Saw that coming in 2008. I’m no moderate, though you think you know who I am, but I’m also practical. I didn’t vote for Romney in the primaries, which might shock you, I know, but when it came down to it, I valued my country more than my disappointment and I showed it by voting.

So, YOU GET OVER THE GOP and your hatred for them and form a party with a VIABLE candidate and get back to me. In the meantime, don’t presume to lecture someone you have never had discourse with before on what to say, believe or do.

Remember kids, if you want to save the environment, there are two things to keep in mind.

1) Be a “locavore”. Eat foods produced close to you… you can reduce CO2 emissions on your consumption by reducing the transportation required.

2) Force oil to get transshipped from Canada to China and from the Middle East to North America instead of using oil in North America without shipping it around the world. You can reduce your CO2 emissions by forcing as much transportation as possible on oil.

Oh, you’re having trouble believing both of these polices at the same time?

A crowd that organizers said numbered approximately 35,000 braved the cold on Sunday and marched to urge President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and to show leadership on other climate issues they called urgent.

Everyone of these 35,000 should be forced to live off grid and away from big energy for at least a year. Wind, solar and foot power only. They will change their tune after that.

libfreeordie on February 18, 2013 at 11:36 AM

Why am I not surprised at your comment. Besides being an educational hypocrite you are also an environmental hypocrite.

Some of those protesters flew on magic carpets to Washington D.C. which everyone knows, don’t impact their carbon footprint. Others came in electric cars charged up from lightning strikes, and electricity from windmills?

Usually these elitists want all the gas they need for their lifestyle, and think you should sit home, and don’t like where you live and work. Nosybodies.

Something tells me you don’t understand the concept of letting the LIVs, Oboobi, and the GOPe burn it all down. ya could have had several republican senators by now — Angle, COD, Murdoch &Akins. LIB! !!

Oh buy the way, did I not call it last week that Oboobi would go to Chicago to talk about gun grabbing before jetting off to golf? that old anti-midas touch is still hanging over him seeing how another innocent was killed hours after his visit. What a POS.

I understand the concept fully. It’s an emotional reaction-you know, something we berate the left for indulging repeatedly. My limbic brain agrees with LIB. My intellectual brain recognizes that I can’t afford high gas prices, higher taxes and never-ending public debt, not to mention daily assaults on my liberties that are too blatant to miss. I also recognize that Romney was far from a conservative’s dream, but a stop-gap measure altogether. I’m practical in that I knew one thing he wouldn’t do would be to keep the Muslim Brotherhood in positions of power in the US and at the very least he would slow the decline until the conservative bench could get up to speed. But, by all means, LIB and take me and mine down with you. We really appreciate it. /s

OMG, they had a “hissy fit” when he golfed, and b***hed, whined and moaned when he went to Crawford, petted his dog, went to meet the troops(which they Never reported), went jogging, or Anything Else he did.

Good then you understand that change begins with a few taking a stand and others slowly coming around until we reach critical mass. our founding fathers were willing to give up their treasure and life, if need be for their sacred cause. The nascent republicans were willing to abandon the Whigs in order to stop the expansion of slavery. But in this day and age we aren’t willing to risk it all to stop generational theft and boo-hoo the gas just went up another buck and maybe another by summer.

That’s the ticket. Just accept the lesser of two evils because at least our “evil” will manage the decline as opposed to the out of control decline. next time you get to vote, think about what you’re voting for and what’s at stake for your future. I and 6million others did our part by denying Oboobi his mandate. When you and 35 million join us, we’ll put the GOPe to pasture and can then go about restoring our country. All it take is for a 3rd of the citizenry to effect that change. But if you’re not willing to go that far then go in peace from us.

Not if the “grassroots” won’t get its lardbutt off of the couch and go vote……

……instead of sulking because its “perfect conservative” candidate wasn’t nominated.
(it doesn’t matter if that “perfect conservative” is a racist, anti-semitic, isolationist, who’d be stomped at the polls)

I get your point, but I disagree with the end result. Unlike you, I don’t believe we come back from 8 years of Obama and the Democrats. It will be too late and I don’t think the parasite class (alarmingly close to more than 50% of the country) will “learn from their mistakes”. To them, they haven’t made a mistake. They luuuuuuuuv government largesse and don’t give a crap who pays for it or how it gets paid for, if at all.

I believe that the solution is to field candidates that will live up to our expectations, not to leave the game altogether in the hope that we can come back as a team later (after we’ve been shut out of the league) and I do agree that Romney wasn’t my idea of a great, or even marginal candidate. In the meantime, we get active locally (where it counts) to effect change, and where necessary, play the hand we are dealt and go about getting the change we want by voting disappointments out of office.

Denied Obama his mandate? You may think so, but be very sure he doesn’t agree and neither does the Democrat party. In his world and theirs, a vote of 1 greater than the Republican candidate is a mandate and he makes sure to proclaim it loud and clear during his never-ending campaign. He sure acts like it, doesn’t he?

If you think we can have a second “revolution” like the first, I think you are too hopeful of the result. The people of this country are soft and the government has drones and it won’t make a tinker’s damn worth of difference how well the citizens are prepared.

I want much of the same thing you want, but from a different approach. And, maybe a dollar a gallon more to you isn’t significant, but to someone, like me, that drives more than 500 miles in a week, it adds up, so yeah, I’m complaining. I have that right and you have the right not to give a damn.

Proponents of clean energy should pony up their own money and conduct their own research to come up with practical solutions. But the game they’re playing as always is to use other people’s money. Government has all the solutions.

However, at least they got more press coverage than abortion opponents got, including nineteen seconds on CBS Evening News:

Yeah, but I doubt all that many even saw that. It’s not like it was shown during the Grammys.

Conservatives went to work and school over the decades to learn “useful trades”, or go into business and make money.

Socialists went to college and joined Leftist organizations in order to network, and take over the media in all forms, academia/education, and the reins of government…and make money.

The Leftists understand individual and mass psychology-though they despise them, they understand both Madison Avenue marketing psychology and Dr. Goebbels groundbreaking work in mass media propaganda. They don’t need a Walter Cronkite so much anymore, because they know fewer people watch the LSM nightly news shows.

Hey hey ho ho! I’m actually a fan of peaceful protests, no matter the cause, as that freedom reminds us all that political change comes through peaceful action in this republic. Still, it would be nice if protesters could expand their repertoires to include something more than the mindless, fill-in-the-blank chants from two generations ago. In this case, it doesn’t even apply, since Keystone isn’t here yet, and so can’t “go.”

One more thing. For LIB to work you have to have elected representatives willing to stand strong against the demands of the One, the Democrat party and the media. We don’t currently have that, so your desire to LIB won’t get fulfilled. All we’ll get is full-blown socialism. If I turn out to be wrong, I’ll admit it. The question is, are you willing to do the same?

Agree with you that we have to focus at the lower levels, after all we have 30 governors and many more at the state level and lower. We need to encourage them to stick to conservative principles with our votes and voices. The economy has sucked for me as well but I rather do the suffering now so that my kids can get back the land of opportunity that was given to us without feeling the jackboot of legal thugs on their necks. Unfortunately that is impossible with an amoral society. Until that changes it will never get better.

Agree with you that we have to focus at the lower levels, after all we have 30 governors and many more at the state level and lower. We need to encourage them to stick to conservative principles with our votes and voices. The economy has sucked for me as well but I rather do the suffering now so that my kids can get back the land of opportunity that was given to us without feeling the jackboot of legal thugs on their necks. Unfortunately that is impossible with an amoral society. Until that changes it will never get better.

AH_C on February 18, 2013 at 1:56 PM

We agree on something then. It’s a beginning. Who knows where it will lead?

Granted, I have it easier on OK, since we’re as red can be. But for the past few years I’ve been disgusted with our two senators turning rinoish. If they weren’t retiring, I would support their being primaried. But this year I’m turning iowaian so I’ll only support the conservative runners when it comes up.